Week 4 in Cyprus – detox

Week 4 at the clinic focused more on detoxification of my system. If you’re not familiar with the borrelia infection, it is very endo-toxic so when you start killing it, it dumps those toxins into your body resulting in the Herxheimer reaction I’ve spoken about before. This affects different people differently, but in me I get a really bad head, neck and shoulder ache and huge brain fog. It is deeply unpleasant.

It’s hard to explain to someone who’s never experienced it, but the closest I can come is to say it’s a bit like a hangover, but much worse.

To help prevent or lessen the severity these herxes there’s a few things you can do. It helps to know that your liver does the vast majority of the work but when it gets overloaded then your skin takes up the slack, which is why many Lyme sufferers have skin rashes.

At the clinic we mainly do colonics, enemas and foot soaks in bicarbonate water. The colonics clean out your colon and lower intestines and remove a lot of crap (pun fully intended).

The enemas I’ve had so far have been bicarb and probiotic to promote gut health. Another one is the coffee enema which pokes the gall bladder to release its stored bile, and promotes enhanced detox in the liver.

There’s also infra-red saunas to make you sweat. This is one of my favourites at home, but I’ve not used the one in the clinic yet as it’s a new set up in the last week or so.

The good news is that my herxes are now starting to lessen in severity. My good days are definitely getting better.

Live Blood Analysis

At the end of the week I went to a clinic in Paphos that does live blood analysis. I’m not sure how much to make of it yet as the jury seems out on whether it’s worth anything, because you can’t actually see the borrelia spirochaetes unless it’s early in the infection — they disappear into flesh and bone.

Here’s a shot of my blood. I actually have the live video feed too, which is fascinating. There was not a lot wrong but apparently the ones clumping together here on the left means I have some mould exposure. Other minor things to note were that I am not alkaline enough (Lyme turns the body slightly acidic which aids its survival) and I need more B12.

You’re probably also wondering how I am doing after 4 weeks. The answer is, a fair bit better. My fatigue is improved and I can climb stairs without feeling exhausted, and my brain fog feels like it’s a little better too. However I am not getting ahead of myself, I expect to be doing a lot more recovery when I get home, and will wait for 4-6 months before I make another critical assessment.

That’s it for now, more next weekend after I complete my last full week in Cyprus.